Auto's Revenge
by DayDreamer95
Summary: 100 years after WALL-E's epic adventure, a young mechanic named Nikki inadvertently reactivates Auto - and he's out for revenge. Rated K-plus for mild violence. Please review!
1. Just a Fairy Tale

_**Chapter 1: Just A Fairy Tale**_

_Once upon a time, mankind lived happily on a planet named Earth. But man took for granted the gift of life and the beautiful environment they called home, and abused it horribly. Over time, Earth's natural beauty became buried in their greedy and wasteful ways as litter and trash piled at their feet. Soon, mankind was suffocating from the noxious fumes of the garbage that yet continued to build up around them and threatened to drown them if they didn't escape quickly. So escape they did, to the one place known for having plenty of blessed spac__e—__outer space. On the jet engines of an enormous starship known as the _Axiom_, man fled to the farthest reaches of the universe, as far away from the polluted Earth as possible. There mankind stayed for 800 years, and from eternity on they likely would have remained, were it not for one brave little robot._

_WALL-E, our savior, the one who went beyond his own directive to save mankind. A mere clean-up robot built to clear away the trash left behind on Earth, and doing so for 800 years, WALL-E attained something many robots only dreamed of having: the ability to adapt and survive. And when he met EVE, a search probe designed to seek out life on the desolate planet, he realized that the universe had more to offer than the empty wasteland called Earth. WALL-E followed EVE back to the _Axiom_, and from then on launched into an epic journey that words can only begin to describe._

_In short, WALL-E showed mankind the error of its ways, and aided the humans in returning to Earth. Man experienced the warm radiance of enlightenment, and saw that they needed to take care of themselves along with the planet on which they lived, while WALL-E realized his own feelings of love for EVE, as did she for him. And so, the humans, and the robots that accompanied them, lived happily ever after . . ._

o~*~o

I gently eased the old storybook closed, and gazed out the window at the sky of the early dawn, where flames of oranges burned at the edge of the black horizon, and the first rays of morning were reaching through the darkness of night. It was great being able to witness the sunrise, but I couldn't help but think that most people would have probably been in bed at this early hour. But, I guess after spending the better part of your 18 years of life waking up at such times, you get used to it. I glanced back at the storybook in my hands, whose worn leather binding read: _The Legend of WALL-E_. My grandparents always told me stories like this, about a little robot that saved mankind with his courage. Yet, I had never seen this supposed "savior of mankind" anywhere, which was particularly odd, considering what I did for a living.

You see, I worked as a mechanic, repairing and maintaining the numerous robots on Earth. I was familiar with every single robot that inhabited Earth—but never before had I seen this WALL-E. I did know EVE, but I was still pretty skeptical. I just couldn't bring myself to believe that one little robot could save the entire human race. And the story mentions WALL-E and EVE falling in love, which only made the story less credible in my mind, because while I did believe that robots each had their own unique personality, I was set in the belief that they could never truly experience emotions as humans do. To me, that story, that old legend, was nothing more than a fairy tale.

I got out of bed and examined myself in the mirror. My rusty auburn hair fell in wild, cascading curls, framing my trim face. Two hazel eyes gazed back at me, which slowly roamed my lean, firm figure. My muscles and skin had long been toughened by years of near constant travel and strenuous labor. I swept my unruly curls into a practical ponytail that rested at the base of my neck and pulled on an old red jumpsuit that came from who-knows-where. It was rather filthy when I salvaged it, but I found the jumpsuit quite comfortable and easy to work in, so I didn't really mind. I then put on my utility belt that carried many useful handheld tools, slipped on my sturdy work boots, and I was ready to leave.

I started to head out the door when a voice called after me, "Nikki!"

I turned around to find my grandmother walking down the hall towards me, holding a toolbox in her hand.

"You almost forgot this," Grandma said.

I took the toolbox from her. "Thanks, Grandma," I said. My toolbox was very important to me; it held tools I needed for a majority of minor repair jobs. How I kept forgetting it, I'll never know.

"Been reading that story again, have you?"

"Huh?" I glanced down to find the storybook still in my hand. "Yeah, I guess I have . . ." For some reason, the story intrigued me, maybe more than it should have. Maybe because it was such an impossible story, I thought.

A smile curved Grandma's weathered, cracked lips. "You are so much like my great-great-grandparents, our great ancestors." Now, there was an odd statement, but nonetheless, one I heard often. "John and Mary . . . They met because of WALL-E, you know."

"Sure they did, Grandma." And pigs can fly. As if! I handed the storybook back to her, and headed out for the day.

As I walked, I breathed deeply to take in all the fresh air I possibly could. I caught the sweet, soothing scent of flowers, which helped me to turn my focus back to the current task of my job. Though, since there were no immediate jobs at hand, I had some time to myself. I passed by a glorious, ornate house that practically towered above all the others, and knew what I was to do with my free time.

I went into the house, where I saw a dark-haired man reclining on a large, plush sofa. This man was Colin B. McCrea, the descendant of the supposed captain of the legendary _Axiom_.

"Good morning, Captain," I said to him. Calling him "Captain" was like an inside joke only I was in on, since I knew that there was no way that the captain he was supposedly descended from ever existed.

"Morning, Nikki," Colin said with a warm smile, yet sounding a little drowsy. His voice was a deep and pleasant one that, if I didn't know any better, held a slight tone of authority. Though he tried to be discreet about it out of politeness, I noticed him stifling a yawn. Like most others, he wasn't accustomed to waking up so early, so the only reason he was probably up was because I must have woken him.

"Sorry for waking you up," I apologized. "I just wanted to talk to someone that wasn't my grandma."

He chuckled at that; he knew how my grandmother could get sometimes. "Well, why don't you talk to some of your robot friends, Miss Robot Whisperer?" he said teasingly.

I rolled my eyes. Colin always poked fun at me like that for being able to communicate with the robots. No one else could understand any of the robots, for the robots had amongst themselves a unique language I called Robot-Speak, for lack of a better name. After years of working with them, I eventually learned this language. Now, I couldn't produce the various beeps, clicks, and whirs that composed the language, but I could easily translate what the robots were saying when they spoke it. "All the robots are asleep, as well, thank you very much," I said to his mocking question. I started to leave, for I was done with him and I had to get back to what I should have been doing—my job. "It's been nice seeing you, Captain, but now I must be off. Unlike _some_ people—" here I shot a pointed look at him "—I have a job to do. So, goodbye."

"See you later, Nikki," he said to me as I walked out the door.

I set out once more and headed for the Tree of Beginnings, a large tree—make that _the _largest, as it was easily the tallest tree around—that reached high into the sky, about 100, 150 feet if I had to guess. Since it was easily seen from a distance, it made for a good meeting place. This tree, if I recalled it correctly, was also part of the fictional legend of WALL-E. They said that it was the very first plant to be nutured and grown in the earth's soil after all life had been decimated by our ancestors' dumb mistakes. And—this I laughed out loud at—they also said that WALL-E found this precious plant and had carried it around in a boot as he traveled with it. A _boot_! What other ridiculous junk could they possibly have come up with?

Anyways, M-O, a hyper little cleaning robot with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, came to greet me at this tree. He tried to say something to me, but the words came out as a jumble that sounded more like a buzz. This normally happened from time to time, as he usually talked so fast, his voice modulator sometimes stumbled over the rapid stream of chatter. "Try again, M-O," I encouraged him. "And try to slow down a little."

"Goodmorningnikki," he said, pacing his words at a speed he considered slow. "Doyouthinkyoucanhelpmeout?"

"Sure. What can I do for you?"

M-O lifted up his scrubber arm, the main tool he used to clean anything he deemed dirty—which was usually just about everything. I saw that in the coarse bristles of the cleaning brush, some stones and pebbles were stuck, likely a result of him trying to scrub something he shouldn't have. Well, at least he wasn't as bad as he was when I first found him—he was a complete wreck then, freaking out and trying to clean everything in sight. He calmed considerably after I reconfigured his programming, though those obsessive-compulsive habits of his never really went away. I withdrew a small metal pick from my toolbox and began working the rocks out of the bristles.

Suddenly, M-O squawked happily and started waving his scrubber arm excitedly, interrupting my work. I glanced up to see EVE gliding by us. I called her over, and she slowed to a graceful stop in front of us.

"Good morning, Nikki," she said, her blue LED eyes smiling at me.

"Good morning," I said. "Anything new going on?"

"I'd like you to meet someone."

_Not this again_, I groaned inwardly. EVE often talked about that old legend as if she were there, and kept trying to introduce me to a robot that didn't exist. Though I never expressed such thoughts to her directly, I believed her to be delusional, and dismissed her words as the fabrications of a troubled mind. But this time, I decided to play along to appease her. "And who would that be?"

"His name is WALL-E. He's a very nice robot. I know you would like him."

"Where is he?"

"Wait just a minute. I'll bring him here." She zipped off into the distance in search of a robot that existed only in her mind. I idly wondered, _How long will she look for that robot? That mythical, nonexistent robot . . . ?_ The thought drifted through my mind like a lazy cloud crawling across the sky before dissipating into nothing. I then went back to work on M-O.

I had just finished removing the last stone from M-O's scrubber brushes when I heard EVE approach. I looked up—and nearly dropped the tool in my hand. Next to EVE, standing before my very eyes was a robot I'd never seen before. _Can it be . . . ? Is this WALL-E? Was the legend true, after all?_ I gaped at the strange robot. He gave me a wave and a cheerful whistle.

"This is Nikki," EVE said, introducing the robot to me.

The robot came up to me, took my hand in his odd three-fingered, shovel-like one, and shook it in a friendly handshake. By way of introducing himself, he said simply, "WALL-E," at once confirming my suspicions.

I couldn't believe it. The legend was true. All of it was true. My oh-so-skeptical mind was blown. So blown, in fact, I went into complete and total shock. I must have stood there a good twenty minutes just staring at the legendary robot that was truly, actually real. I finally snapped out of it when WALL-E waved a hand in front of my face, saying, "Yoo-hoo!"

"Uh, hi," I said somewhat awkwardly. "Nice to meet you." I looked at WALL-E again, still not entirely sure that he was really standing in front of me. He certainly was a peculiar little robot, with large, binocular-shaped eyes, a metal box for a body, durable treads to handle all sorts of terrain, and a solar-charge meter. No other robot I knew ran on solar power, and he seemed like an older, outdated model of robot that I never knew of.

WALL-E gave a concerned look to EVE, and she said for him, "Are you all right, Nikki?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little shocked. WALL-E is legendary, after all."

"Leh-gee?" WALL-E inquired. It was immediately evident that he wasn't quite as articulate as other robots. Though I have to admit, that only made him more charming.

"_Legendary_. You're famous, WALL-E. What you did, all those years ago, that was . . . incredible. Monumental. You did a very good thing, and all us humans know that, even today."

"Ooh!" was WALL-E's response.

"That's amazing," EVE said.

"It _is_ pretty cool," I said. _I just never knew that it was more than just a fairy tale_, I added in my mind. "So . . . Would you two like to see my workshop?" I don't know why that came up right then, I think my thoughts were still scrambled from the mind explosion a few minutes before.

The two robots exchanged a glance that seemed to express more than words. "Sure," EVE said.

I led them to my workshop—which was really just an abandoned car garage—the place I performed more serious repair jobs. There, many power tools and other things I couldn't fit in my toolbox hung within easy reach. A mess of spare parts and blueprints covered the place, though I could almost always find what I needed with little searching. WALL-E and EVE both explored the workspace. EVE was more courteous and respectful, merely looking and making a point of not touching anything, while WALL-E was too curious for his own good, getting his hands on anything and everything possible. Several times I had to pull him away from the dangerous power tools, and he kept shifting my blueprints around when I had them just the way I liked them. And, out of all the drawers in that place, he found the one in which I kept my—ahem—_personal _items. I nearly died of embarrassment right there and then when he pulled out a pair of my panties and put it over his head, wearing it as some sort of hat.

"Give me that!" I snapped, snatching his "hat" off his head and placing it back in the drawer.

"Aw," he sighed, giving me a plaintive look that said, _What did I do?_ That look in those big eyes of his was just too cute; I couldn't stay angry with him a second longer.

"I'm sorry about that," I said gently to him. "Just try not to touch anything, okay?" I turned away for a second, and . . .

_BANG! CRASH!_

"WALL-E!" Hadn't I just told him to _not_ touch anything?

He responded with a beep that roughly translated to, "Not me!"

I turned around to see the expected sight of several objects on the floor felled by the wonderful physics of the domino effect—and EVE holding a single, out-of-place gear, looking sheepish and oddly guilty.

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at her. "EVE?"

"Sorry," said EVE softly, fixing her gaze on the ground.

But I couldn't stay mad at her, either; I've always had a soft spot for the robot population of Earth. The human population . . . not so much. When I think about it, sometimes I felt as if I belonged more with the robots than I did with the humans. But, that's beside the point.

"Aw, it's alright, EVE," I said. "It's not _that_ bad . . ." Who was I kidding? Half the shop was in ruins, though I would be able to fix it . . . eventually. "In the meantime, why don't we head someplace else?" No point in staying after the place had been turned into a veritable disaster area.

At that, WALL-E exclaimed in realization and started tugging at my wrist. "Come! Come!" he said excitedly.

I let him lead me to an old, rusted trailer that looked as outdated as himself. He pushed a button and, with the whining groan of centuries-old hydraulics, a door lowered itself to the ground. WALL-E then pressed another button, and a string of Christmas lights flickered on, illuminating the dark interior.

There was shelf after shelf of random knick-knacks and trinkets that WALL-E apparently had collected with no rhyme or reason. Toys, lightbulbs, spare parts, and more—way more than I could possibly list.

WALL-E directed my attention to an old iPod. He pulled a large wall-mounted magnifying glass in front of the small screen, enlarging the image on it to the size of a small television, then inserted a tape into the adjoined video player. An upbeat, bouncy tune filled the air, and the screen showed many people singing the song and dancing to the beat.

"_Put on your Sunday clothes, there's lot of world out there . . ._ " the dancing people sang, making me want to get up and dance with them. I glanced at WALL-E and EVE. They, too, seemed to want to dance, their heads rocking to the peppy beat.

The song ended, followed by another, this one soothing and romantic. The screen now displayed a man and woman holding hands, gazing lovingly into each other's eyes.

"_And it only took a moment to be loved . . . A whole life long . . ._" the duet crooned softly to each other. It was very touching, and made me wonder what it was like to be in love. To be the other half of a whole. To have nothing else matter to you than that other person . . . I looked over at the two robots next to me once more, and saw that they were copying the couple onscreen, holding hands and looking at each other like they were the only ones in the world. They looked so in love . . . But that wasn't possible. Robots, no matter how sentient they become, cannot develop true emotions. WALL-E and EVE were simply mimicking what they saw in the video, nothing more, I convinced myself.

When the video was over, I headed outside, a new mission set firm in my mind. I already knew the legend was true—WALL-E himself was more than enough proof—but I was now determined to find the _Axiom_, the starship mentioned in the legend. I had to know if it still existed, as WALL-E did. I wanted to see, wanted to touch another piece of history.

I soon realized that I would likely never find the ship on my own, and asked EVE for assistance, as she probably knew the way and was easier to communicate with. She agreed, and led me, along with WALL-E, to wherever the _Axiom _supposedly was. After about half an hour of walking, with much thanks to EVE's guidance, we reached our destination. The _Axiom_, right in front of my eyes.

It was huge, way bigger than thought it to be. Tilting my head backwards in a futile attempt to see all of the larger-than-life starship, my heart leaped and skipped over an excited beat. Taking a deep breath to calm my trembling, I stepped towards the ship, looked back at WALL-E and EVE, and said:

"I'm going to explore the _Axiom_."


	2. Auto's Return

Just so you know, all the robots are usually talking in Robot-Speak unless I specify the fact that they're talking in English. And WALL-E can speak Robot-Speak, just not very well, like he doesn't speak English very well._**

* * *

**__****_

Chapter 2: Auto's Return

WALL-E and EVE exchanged a meaningful look that again somehow went beyond expression of words. Both robots then turned their gazes towards me. Both sets of eyes looked apprehensive and nervous as they glanced at the humongous starship behind me. They seemed almost afraid of the legendary _Axiom_, but why would that be? I sensed that there was more to the story than the legend mentioned, but knew better than to ask EVE or WALL-E directly, as I also got the feeling that things took place that neither would like to talk about. So rather than questioning things, I stepped towards the _Axiom_ once more, and said over my shoulder, "I'm going in, whether you two like it or not. So if you're coming along, then come. If not, I'm perfectly fine with leaving you out here. I can just explore on my own . . ." _Hmm, would the guilt trip work here?_I wondered. It was worth a try, because truth be told, I didn't want to go into the old, creepy, rusted starship by myself. "All alone . . . In the huge starship I could get lost in and never find my way out of . . ." _Yikes, I really _don't_ want that to happen_, I thought to myself with a suppressed grimace as I processed what I just said.

The two robots looked at one another again, deliberating on their decision. After some whispered words and a few wary glances at me and the starship, EVE came forward and said, "Fine. We're coming with you."

I let out my held breath in a silent sigh. _Thank goodness_. Now I had someone with me that knew their away around the metal death trap. I took in another breath of air to steady my nerves. "Let's go!" I said with all the courage and confidence I could muster.

With the two robots of legend by my side, I boarded the historic starship.

Darkness flooded my vision, and my hand went automatically to the flashlight on my toolbelt. I pulled the flashlight out and flicked it on. With a _click_, a wide beam of light cut through the darkness.

The ship seemed even bigger on the inside, an immense space that I found impossible to imagine filled with people or robots or anything else. I came across a large, empty hole that must have once been a pool. I found some towels nearby, and through the dust and grime they had collected over the years, I could make out the words: _Lido Deck_. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

At the edge of the flashlight's beam, I saw WALL-E and EVE walking alongside me, again holding hands like some couple. The thought of those two as a couple almost made me laugh aloud. They were just so different—she was aerodynamic and smooth, he was clunky and awkward; she was the epitome of advanced technology, he was technologically obsolete and outdated. Two complete opposites, two individuals that just didn't belong together, even if robots did have feelings and could fall in love. But, if they wanted to go ahead and play make-believe, I wouldn't say anything.

After some more exploration, I discovered an old garbage chute. I poked my head inside it, holding my breath to keep out the stench of century-old garbage. The fact that its narrow tube shot up towards some unknown part of the ship evoked my curiosity. I had to know where this tube led to. I hopped onto the edge of the flap separating the chute from rest of the ship, wedged myself into the tight space, and carefully climbed up it. WALL-E did the same, while EVE hovered just below us, ready to catch either one of us should we fall.

With only one near-mishap of a slip, we made it safely to wherever the chute led. I leaped out and pointed my flashlight into the dark room. There were many worn-out, broken-down computers, which led me to believe that this was the _Axiom_'s control center. But as I looked around, the only thing that caught my interest was the holo-pictures on the wall, the electronic images flickering as the old hologram projector struggled to keep working. Below each picture was a name plaque, and I soon noticed that each had one thing in common—the word "Captain." My jaw dropped nearly to the floor when I saw a familiar name on one of the plaques: McCrea. It couldn't have been coincidence. The proof was there, and it was undeniable. Colin was, indeed, the descendant of the last captain of the _Axiom_.

When I could finally tear my shocked self away from the wall of captains, I noticed that EVE and WALL-E both were acting even more nervous and anxious to leave; I could tell by their fearful eyes and their restless body language. It was clear that here was where whatever they don't want to talk about happened at this very spot. But again, I wasn't going to bring up anything that might be sensitive subjects, so I didn't say anything. I kept looking around, and saw only one more thing that was able to capture my attention: a broken robot.

I came closer to inspect it more thoroughly. Interestingly, it was a ceiling-bound bot, attached permanently to the ship itself. It was worn, and rusted from years of neglect, but I could still fix it if I tried. And since I could not, would not turn away from a robot in need, I did. Repair it, that is. I taped together broken wires, tightened loose bolts, and realigned its circuits until I heard the familiar whir of machinery starting up.

The newly repaired robot rose, its single eye glowing red. It had an odd shape, almost like that of a steering wheel on a boat, and I could see it was white beneath the reddish-brown rust, with black knobs on its handles. "Hello," I said to it. "I'm Nikki. What is your name?"

"Greetings, Nikki. My name is Autopilot," it intoned. Its voice was decisively male, but monotonous—it held no emotion or any inflection whatsoever, which struck me as unusual; most robots had the tendency to mimic human emotion, if only in their tone of voice. I was also surprised to hear him speak plain English, when I was so used to hearing Robot-Speak from robots. But I got over it quickly, as I was more excited than anything to meet another new robot.

"Nice to meet—"

"No!" EVE shouted, cutting me off. Her voice was filled with such panic, I whirled around to see what had endangered her. But I saw nothing, only the twin looks of absolute horror from EVE and WALL-E both.

"What's wrong?" I asked them.

EVE answered with terrified silence, and WALL-E, cowering behind EVE, bleeped a sound that meant something like, "Bad!"

I still didn't understand. Were they scared of my new robot friend, Autopilot? _They can't be scared of a fellow robot. . . Unless . . . _The puzzle pieces clicked together in my head. This robot, this Autopilot, caused WALL-E and EVE harm. He is the thing they're scared of, because he'd hurt them, terrorized them in the past. Which is to say nothing good about that Autopilot. Fear curled its cold fingers slowly around my heart as I backed away one shuffled step at a time. A circular lens closed in around Autopilot's eye, lending it the appearance of a keen, threateningly narrowed eye as he watched my every move.

I edged backwards until I was at a safe distance, then yelled, "Run!" to EVE and WALL-E as I dashed back to the garbage chute. The two robots were already ahead of me on that, overtaking me in the race to escape. I then heard a small _ping_, like the sound of metal on metal, and the next thing I saw was EVE rubbing the back of her head as if she'd been struck there. In that moment, it didn't seem all that important to me.

If only I knew . . .

o~*~o

We got out quickly as possible, and stood outside the starship of lost memories. Once we all had the chance to calm our nerves, we started to head back to WALL-E's trailer. That's when the trouble began.

"Whoa!" I heard EVE exclaim, followed by WALL-E's concerned query, "EVE-ah?"

I looked behind me to see that EVE was acting strangely. Or rather, her movements were strange. She seemed unable to control her body as it swerved to the left and then to the right, as if she were off balance—which shouldn't have been possible, considering that she had a gyroscope program, which enabled her to remain perfectly balanced at all times. It seemed like her levitation system was on the fritz, the way she moved so haphazardly. But then, after a few more moments of unsteady wobbling, she recovered, and though she looked a little confused, she was seemingly fine. She didn't show any other signs of malfunction, so I dismissed the occurrence as a freak glitch in her system that went as quickly as it had come.

The three of us continued to walk towards the trailer, thinking that the worst was over. It wasn't. As we neared the trailer, EVE went into another spasm of erratic, jerky movements. This time, her right arm transformed into her powerful plasma blaster. She raised the blaster, her arm trembling, struggling against the action, and charged up the weapon. I jumped out of the way as a plasma bolt was fired from EVE's blaster, just barely escaping the blast. EVE charged the blaster once more, the weapon droning with the sound of deadly energy building within it. Now it was WALL-E who had to scramble for safety as the next blast was fired his way.

"EVE! What are you doing?" I asked her. Her actions seemed almost purposeful as she fired blast after blast. Was she doing this on purpose? Or was it a serious malfunction that needed to be fixed?

"Can't . . . control!" she said, imitating a tone of anguish as she fought against whatever force was controlling her.

I had no other choice. I had to use it. I raced towards my toolbox—which I foolishly put down on the ground at some point—dodging yet another blast as EVE was forced to continue firing, and got out a tool I rarely had to use: a manual shut-down switch. If I attached this device to her and pressed the yellow button on it, it would manually switch her to sleep mode. But how was I to get this on her when she was shooting lasers that could vaporize me in an instant? I hated to do this, but . . .

"WALL-E! Distract EVE so I can get this on her!" I said to WALL-E. I really didn't like making him the bait, but there was nothing else I could do. WALL-E zoomed in front of EVE so that she directed her blasts at him, while I sneaked up on her from behind. When I was close enough, I pounced on top of her and attached the shut-down switch to her, placing one end on her head and the other on her chest. Then I pushed the yellow button. Thankfully, the device worked as it should, and she went into sleep mode.

I tried to halt the nervous tremor running through my body to no avail. WALL-E weaved through a maze of large craters towards me, shaking visibly from mock fright.

"EVE-ah?" he said inquisitively, asking how she is.

But I didn't know. I needed to run a full analysis on her in order to find out, and I could only do that at my workshop. " . . . Help me get her back to my workshop," was all I said to him. I didn't need to worry him yet, by the slight chance that it was nothing too serious.

He nodded wordlessly and helped me push her to my workshop, since there was no better way to transport her. The workshop was still a mess, but I just shoved stuff out of the way for the time being to make room for my latest patient. I laid her down on the table, and bound her to it with holo-straps. I didn't like restraining her like this, but I didn't want her to go crazy and completely destroy my workshop, either. Referring to my blueprint for the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator probe, I entered the code for gaining full access to her circuitry—thus bypassing her built-in security system—into the touch pad on the right side of her chest. With a beep and a whir, the circuit panel slid open, revealing EVE's intricate circuitry. The complex circuits were beautifully designed, with no visible flaws. But there _was_ a flaw, a serious one, one I needed to find.

I connected EVE's central motherboard to the old desktop computer I kept in the workshop for reprogramming purposes or for running tests on my patients, and launched a diagnostics program. The program would take some time to fully scan EVE's system and determine the problem, so there wasn't much else to do other than wait. I clacked a few keys on the computer, inputting the command to display the program's progress. _2%_, the display read. Sigh.

WALL-E, who had been watching me work the entire time, asked again about EVE. Patiently, I told him that I still didn't know, and that it would be a little while before I would find out. He then asked if he could talk with her. I was reluctant to let EVE out of sleep mode, though, in the case that she loses control again. But then I reassured myself that the holo-straps would hold—the energy restraints had the tensile strength of steel, if not more. I pressed the yellow button on the manual switch, waking EVE from her sleep mode.

She looked around, disoriented, and let out a soft hum of confusion. Her perfect oval eyes sought an answer in my hazel ones.

"You're all right, EVE," I assured her. I said that, though I still wasn't exactly sure . . . My gaze drifted to the computer. _7%_. Why couldn't that darned computer go any faster?

EVE looked around once more, still uneasy, when her eyes found WALL-E. "WALL-E," she cooed contently, immediately comforted by his presence.

"EVE-ah," he sighed happily, glad to see her talking and acting normally. EVE giggled, a delightful sound that rang like musical bells. Even if it was just her imitation of human laughter.

_Oh, brother_. I rolled my eyes. There they were again playing that lovebird game. And I was just thinking how great it was that EVE was doing fine when yet another thing went wrong.

She started having hallucinations. She struggled against her bindings as the images playing in her head terrified her beyond sense. She screamed and yelled and fought to get free, so frightened it pulled at my heartstrings. But wait. How could she have been scared if robots didn't have emotions? That was when the first twinge of doubt pinged through my mind like a small electrical zap. I shook it off and moved to press the manual switch once more, but EVE had managed to knock it loose, rendering it ineffective. So I ran my hand back and forth across the smooth surface of her sleek body, hushing her and murmuring comforting words in an attempt to soothe her. A few moments later, the hallucinations passed, and EVE calmed down.

But this couldn't possibly have been a series of freak glitches now, not after three of these mishaps. I went to the computer and surprisingly, a message was waiting for me on the screen: _Preliminary diagnostics completed. Advanced diagnostics tests will now be conducted._ So the computer was a little faster than I thought it to be. I brought up the results of the preliminary tests. A summary of the results:

_Basic systems are functioning properly. __Programming has been unchanged. No internal errors detected._

_A breach in the security system has been detected. Potential virus infiltration, perform antivirus measures immediately._

I read the last line again, then once more as my heart clenched as if it were a bolt being tightened by a wrench. A virus? How could that have happened? This was only the preliminary stage of diagnostics, and I would need to run the advanced tests in order to know for sure, but . . . Just the thought of a virus running rampant in EVE's system tightened my heart with another painful twist of the cold wrench of dread. For the time being, I placed the red manual switch back onto EVE and pushed the shutdown button to put her in sleep mode again. I then began the advanced diagnostic tests.

I couldn't stay in the workshop while the advanced tests ran; I was too anxious, too worried about EVE's well-being to stay in that claustrophobic space. I headed to Colin's house, the only other place I could think of going to at the time. Along the way, M-O caught up to me.

"Thanksforhelpingmenikki," he said. "Whereseva?" Of course he was talking about EVE; I didn't know any robot named "Eva." He had the same quirk of adding an "ah" sound to EVE's name as WALL-E did, I noticed with a smile.

"She's in my workshop," I told him.

"Why?" The yellow rectangle lights that were his eyes widened in alarm. "Issomethingwrongwithher?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know as soon as possible, okay?"

"Besurethatyoudo!" With that, he zipped away.

I arrived at Colin's house and entered with a few hasty knocks on the open door. "Captain!" I called to the empty room. Colin's dark head appeared in the doorway, soon followed by the rest of him.

"Hello, Nikki," he said, running a hand through his mussed hair. He must have seen a look of distress on my face, because he asked straightaway, "What's wrong?"

"It's EVE. She's been acting weird, so I decided to run a few tests on her." Colin said nothing, listening intently to my every word. That was one thing I always admired about him: his ability to listen. It's hard to find someone who will really listen to you . . . "And, according to the data I have so far, she might have a virus."

His brow furrowed with concern. "Well, that's not good. Do you know when the trouble with EVE started?"

"It was . . . after I explored the _Axiom_ with her and WALL-E."

"You explored the _Axiom_?"

"Yeah. And . . . I don't know if this has to do with anything, but I found a robot there. A broken one, but I fixed it."

Colin tensed, the muscles in his body going stiff. "What kind of robot?"

Why did he want to know? I was starting to think that Autopilot had more to do with all this than I'd imagined. "It was shaped like the steering wheel on a ship, and it was white, with—"

"With a red eye in the middle?"

"Yes. How did you . . .?"

His dark eyes flared to life with the fire of anger. "You idiot!" he yelled. "That was Auto, the psychotic robot that tried to keep all the humans in space! Why in the world did you reactivate him?"

"I . . . I didn't know," I replied meekly. I'd never seen Colin angry before. His yelling at me caught me off guard.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as if to stave off a headache. "Is there any chance that Auto could have put the virus into EVE?"

I recalled the metal _ping_ and EVE rubbing her head. That must have been it. Auto implanted a virus into EVE. That is, if it was a virus at all. There was still a slim chance that it was something else. But it was a very slim, almost nonexistent chance. "Yes. It is possible. Very possible."

"Oh, Nikki . . . What have you done?"

That was a very, very good question.

* * *

Yes, I did another cliffhanger, evil little me. *evil laugh* So if you want the next chapter, you better review!


	3. Going Antiviral

Sorry for the delay, my dear readers! Some stuff happened, and I got my computer taken away... So, in order to make it up to you, here is an extra-long chapter - almost two chapters' worth! Enjoy!_**

* * *

**__****_

Chapter 3: Going Antiviral

When I left Colin's house, I headed back to the workshop, for I was fairly certain that the advanced diagnostics tests had finished by that point. But before I even got halfway there, I was bombarded, swarmed by a white mass of metal. EVE's sister probes, identical in every way save for personality, crowded around me, beeping and warbling their concern for their sister. All four robots chattered at once: "Where's our sister?" "Is she okay?" "Nothing's happened to her, right?" "Oh, please tell us she's alright!"

"Back off!" I snapped at them. With my nerves on edge and my patience wearing thin, I just couldn't handle their antics right then. And, I could hardly breathe, much less walk for the crowd of robots pressing in around me. I recieved a few looks of shock from them, but they backed away, giving me some much-needed space. But when I tried to start walking again, my leg collided with one of the metal bodies, eliciting a yelp of surprise from its owner. I attempted walking once more, only to walk into another of the EVEs. I knew they were only worried about their sister, but this was getting ridiculous. "Maybe I could help your sister, if I could actually walk and not bang my shin into one of you guys!"

"Okay, line up, single file!" I commanded them. There were many mutual glances of confusion at one another amongst the EVE sisters. But I wasn't about to repeat myself. "NOW!" The EVEs flinched before obediently falling into a neat single-file line. I was loath to do so, but I could demand the respect of the robots when I needed to. So, my gait blissfully unhindered, I finally arrived at the workshop with my little robot escort, where I accidentally on purpose locked the EVE sisters outside. I hated to do that to them, but I couldn't very well work to help their sister if my workshop was packed with robots.

I could hear their clamoring buzzes and whirs of protest outside, which I tried my best to ignore as I went to the computer. As I had figured, the advanced diagnostics were complete. I skimmed over the report, my scanning eyes halting on the part that confirmed my worst fears and nearly stopped my heart. It read as follows:

_VIRUS PRESENCE CONFIRMED_

_Status: Active. Multiple systems affected. Spreading and affecting other systems._

_Details: Source unknown. Programmed to overwrite programming of host. Potential danger to host._

_Systems infected: Optical, levitation, flight, weapons and defense. Other systems are in process of being infected._

_Recommendations: Perform antivirus measures immediately._

It took everything I had to will my heart just to keep beating, the information frightened me so. Not only was it confirmed that EVE had a virus, it was also a known fact now that it posed a danger to her. It also erased any doubts that Auto was behind this. The virus was programmed to overwrite the programming of the host—the host here being EVE—and that meant it was designed to take control of the host. And from what I've heard about Auto, I was pretty sure he would create something like that.

But why would Auto want to take control of EVE? Unless . . . unless he wasn't aiming for EVE. Perhaps he meant to shoot the virus at WALL-E. And perhaps by bad aim or some stroke of misfortune, he struck EVE instead with the deadly virus. Either way, EVE was suffering for it, and I had to help her before this virus did any serious damage.

As an attempt to take out the virus, I downloaded into EVE's system an antivirus program I myself had written many years ago as a precaution against any situation like this one. But after only a short time, an alert message came onto the screen, telling me: _The software has encountered an error. _

"What in the world?" I said aloud. Clicking a few more keys, I brought up the details to find out more about the error. The monitor displayed the following message when I did so: _The antivirus software has failed to delete the virus._Well, that was rather specific, and not what I wanted to see. It appeared that somehow, the virus had eluded or defeated the antivirus software, and that was seriously concerning. Granted, the antivirus software was a basic, rudimentary program written in haste, but still. The program should have worked, but it didn't.

I twisted in my chair to face and stare silently at EVE, who still lay in sleep mode on the table she was bound to by stronger-than-steel holo-straps. I then turned back to the computer and typed in the command to display EVE's overall health status. A virtual electrical meter came onto the screen, pulsing steadily like a heartbeat as it measured the pulsating flow of electricity coursing through EVE's circuits. The even rythym it showed eased my anxiety, if only somewhat. But nonetheless, I didn't like seeing her like that, restrained and in forced slumber. So I released the energy bindings, and switched her from sleep mode with the manual switch. She looked around, a bit disoriented as she usually was after spending a while in sleep mode. She quickly got her bearings and tried to hover to me, but was stopped by a sharp tug of the wire connected to her as it pulled taut.

"What's with this wire?" she asked, noticing the restricting wire only then.

"It's connected to my computer," I explained, gesturing at the computer behind me. "I'm using it to better understand what's going on with you."

"What _is_ going on with me?"

"Um . . ." I deliberated on whether or not to tell her what was really going on with her. _She probably wouldn't handle the news very well_, I thought. And when EVE couldn't handle something very well, she usually let her blaster handle it for her. My workshop was already a mess; I did _not_ want it reduced to a heap of ashes. "Nothing, really. I'm just running some tests, that's all. So try not to pull on that cord too much, okay?"

EVE's electronic blue eyes narrowed in a look of skeptical suspicion. " . . . Okay," she said after a tense pause. She then went into sleep mode of her own accord, since it was already dark outside. And without her or anything else distracting me from my own thoughts, my mind inevitably wandered back to the matter of the virus wreaking havoc on EVE's body, and of the fact that it somehow escaped deletion.

Maybe it was just a unfortunate coincidence. Maybe the program I wrote just didn't work at all. I had no idea. But just in case it was the latter, I began writing another antivirus program, using the more advanced programming knowledge I had attained in the years since I created the old software. But the stress of the day's events and my own exhaustion got the better of me, and I soon fell asleep there at the computer.

I snapped awake in the middle of the night, startled out of sleep by a nightmare I can no longer remember. I scanned the dark room, wary from the residual fear left from the bad dream. There was WALL-E, sleeping quietly in his box form, head and limbs tucked neatly into his cube-shaped body. Every day since EVE got the virus, he'd stayed in the workshop with her, day and night. He was so worried about her . . .

And there was EVE—wait. _Where did she go? _I looked around the workshop once more, hoping I'd somehow missed her. Nothing. She wasn't there.

I dragged myself outside in search of EVE. There were the EVE sisters, resting in sleep mode, huddled together in a cluster of white. I kept on in my search. After some tired, sleep-hazy wandering, I did find EVE—but something wasn't right.

I couldn't tell exactly what it was that was wrong, though. I just knew that there was something off about her deliberate, mechanical motions. She was digging, scraping dirt into place over a . . . something. I couldn't tell what it was from the distance I was at. I edged nervously closer, sensing an unknown danger. The object EVE was burying came into view—a land mine. But why? Why was she placing this deadly explosive here, where any unsuspecting soul could step on and detonate it?

EVE turned around—and my heart almost stopped for the second time that day.

Her beautiful LED eyes, normally the brightest shade of the purest blue, now glowed a vicious, devilish red. Auto had taken EVE over completely, and was forcing her to do his bidding. The planting of the mine—it was his will, his doing, not EVE's. But that realization didn't make it any less terrifying. I ducked behind a bush, watching EVE warily as my heart refused to slow its frantic rate.

EVE completed her devious work, covering up the land mine so that it showed only as a small mound of dirt. Once the job was done, her eyes flickered back to their normal color, and she looked around in puzzlement. Auto had relinquished his control over her. EVE seemed truly confused, and slightly frightened, though I must have imagined that hint of fear in her expression. She glanced around again, orienting herself, and headed back to the workshop. I soon followed, my heart once again caught in the merciless wrench of fear and dread.

Back at the workshop, EVE settled into the place where she should have been all along and went into sleep mode. I plugged the computer wire back into her and watched her with an anxious eye, sleep a distant thought after what I just saw. Auto's virus had done its job, and now he could take her over at any time. But that wasn't the only thing that worried me. The virus had progressed in its infection of EVE, attacking her other systems, and it was slowly but surely destroying her from within. If I didn't get rid of that virus soon . . . She wasn't going to last.

I spent the rest of the night finishing the antivirus program I had started earlier, and was ready to try it out by the dawn. I uploaded the program into EVE, and waited.

And waited. And waited some more. But even after all that waiting, I only got the same message as before: _The software has encontered an error._I sighed in frustration and put my head in my hands, wondering hopelessly what could possibly stop this virus. If my own, this time well-coded antivirus program couldn't defeat the virus . . . Wait. _My_ software didn't work, but maybe . . .

It was then I knew what I had to do.

I looked to where WALL-E was sitting, waiting patiently with an anxious gleam in his eyes as he usually did. "WALL-E?" I said to him. He looked up, head tilted with curiosity. I got to my feet suddenly, both frightened and excited by the prospect of another adventure. "You're coming with me."

"Where going?" he asked.

"Back to the _Axiom_."

The hydraulic flaps above his eyepieces rose, acting as eyebrows would in his expression of alarm. "W-Why?"

"Because I now know that no ordinary antivirus software is going to help EVE. I need to get the one I'm sure Auto has. It's the only way to rid EVE of the virus once and for all."

"Only way? EVE-ah . . ." He gazed longingly at EVE, no doubt thinking only of her well-being. He then looked back at me, a new determination set in his big binocular eyes. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. The answer was clear in those resolute eyes. He _was_ coming with me, and nothing was going to stop him.

I smile at him and his silent enthusiasm. "Alright," I said. "Let's go!"

o~*~o

WALL-E guided me back to the _Axiom_—since I'm horrible with directions, and couldn't find my own way back to save my life—and we made our way to the garbage chute I knew led to the bridge. Like on our last trip here, I carefully climbed up the narrow shaft, with WALL-E close behind. I moved as fast as I dared, which was slower than last time, as I was terrifyingly aware of the fact that EVE wasn't there to save me from a fatal fall if I slipped.

But that didn't stop WALL-E from slipping, anyway. One of his treads lost traction on the wall of the chute, and he began to fall. He probably would have survived the fall that would have killed me without doubt, but I still caught him, clutching his arm as if my own life depended on it.

"That was close," I grunted, straining to hold up his unexpectedly heavy weight. The added weight pulled hard against my grip, and gravity forced me a few inches down the chute, the rusted metal wall scraping against my back. "Crap, you're heavy! Get back to climbing, before I drop you!"

He scrambled to regain his footing, his treads seeking purchase on the wall slick with some unknown substance. He soon did get traction, and resumed climbing. "Be careful, now," I told him. "We don't have EVE here to catch us now."

"EVE-ah . . ." he sighed, staring sadly at the wall.

"She'll be fine, WALL-E. As long as we find that antivirus, EVE will be fine." _At least I hope so . . ._ "Let's keep going."

We made it to the bridge, thankfully still in one piece. I crept out of the garbage chute quietly as possible, because I knew that Auto was here, and he'd be watching this area like a hawk. Wherever that antivirus was, he was no doubt guarding it with his own life. I couldn't so much as breathe on the computer there, otherwise Auto would immediately know what I was up to. I looked around, and noticed a hole in the floor that looked like it was actually built there.

"What's that?" I asked WALL-E in a soft whisper, pointing at the hole.

"Captain," WALL-E answered.

"The captain's quarters, you mean?"

"Uh-huh!"

_Maybe there's a computer in there_, I thought. I sneaked over to the hole, and leaped in. I misjudged the distance of the fall, and I threw my weight forward into a tumble upon landing to dissipate the shock of the hard landing. Ending the tumble in a graceful crouch, balanced on one knee, I rose easily to my feet without pain. It pays to be physically fit, and to have instincts comparable to that of a feline.

I heard WALL-E falling into the room with a yell and a flailing of his limbs, followed by a loud crash as he landed. I cringed at all the noise he made, hoping that Auto took no notice. Thankfully, he didn't. Either that, or he just chose to ignore it.

I explored the captain's quarters, and found a computer similar to the one up above on the bridge. I made quick work of it, restoring life to the computer in mere minutes. I hacked its firewall and accessed its files, scanning them for the antivirus I sought. But, after searching only by file name for the sake of time, I found nothing. So, I was forced to open each one, and look over its programming to determine its purposes. At last, I found it, masquerading as a simple maintenance program.

I got out a floppy disk, which I had kept on me since that morning to download the antivirus program onto. I inserted the disk into the computer, and typed in the command to download the antivirus. After just a few moments, the floppy disk contained the antivirus that would save EVE's life. If I had just been able to take the disk and leave, I would have been home free. But, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, my hand just happened to be resting on the wrong button . . .

. . . And I tripped the security alarm. Straightaway, Auto slipped through the hole in the ceiling in response to the alarm, scanning the room for intruders. His eye fell on me, and narrowed almost to a pinprick when it caught sight of the disk in my hand. But where others would have been scared for their life, I saw an oppurtunity. I had just been wondering how I was going to get back up to the bridge, and here was my ride. I jumped up and grabbed onto him, holding on with all my might.

But I wasn't about to leave WALL-E behind. "Grab on!" I called down to him. "Quickly!" He did so, grabbing my ankle. Though his weight made it harder to keep my grip on Auto, I held on for dear life.

"Let go," Auto said. He sounded almost annoyed.

"No chance!" I shouted up at him.

Auto pulled up back through the hole, taking me with him. I launched WALL-E to safety with a sharp kick of my leg, then swung forward and jumped off. Both WALL-E and I were a considerable distance from Auto, and we were just a few feet away from the garbage chute. I thought we could get away, so I thought we could run for it and escape safely. "Run, WALL-E! I'm right behind you!" I said before running to the garbage chute. I wrongly assumed we were in the clear, and let my guard down.

Which was why I found myself frozen like a deer in headlights when Auto suddenly came in front of me, blocking my escape route. Which was why I couldn't even draw in a breath when Auto revealed an electric prod, its tip crackling with hundreds of deadly volts.

Which was why I was helpless against his attack.

Auto thrust the prod into my chest, and I felt every single one of those lethal volts coursing into my body. The electricity skipped across my heart, causing it to stall and sputter like an old car engine in my chest before kickstarting into a faster than normal rate. I felt an intense pain as the electricity shorted out my nerves, which vanished moments after as it deadened and paralyzed every muscle in my body. I collapsed to the floor, my numbed legs buckling under my dead weight. The floppy disk holding the antivirus fell from my unresponsive hand.

I heard WALL-E shout in alarm, and saw Auto coming ever so slowly closer, like the harbinger of death himself. Auto extended a black knob, reaching for the unwillingly discarded floppy disk. And I couldn't even lift a finger, much less stop Auto from retrieving the antivirus, thanks to his paralyzing jolt of electricity.

But WALL-E came to the rescue, snatching the disk and leading Auto away from me. Already, I could feel a hint of sensation return to the very tips of my fingers with a slight pricking of that pins and needles feeling. All WALL-E had to do was escape with the antivirus, and I would have recovered and escaped later. But, darn it all, he couldn't leave me behind. He stayed the whole time, darting around and avoiding Auto's attacks, occasionally stealing worried glances my way. Why did he have to be so compassionate? I would have told him to get away, but my frozen vocal cords wouldn't cooperate. All I could do was watch as WALL-E risked his life for me.

WALL-E narrowly dodged another of Auto's attacks, the electric prod just grazing past him, while I strggled to get breath into my seemingly stiff lungs. I could feel both my hands now. Auto plunged his prod at WALL-E, only for the attack to miss, and for the prod to clang into the floor. Feeling to my arms returned. Now Auto and WALL-e were chasing each other in circles, making me dizzy by watching. I felt the pins and needles in my legs, though I still couldn't think of walking yet. Auto looked like he was actually starting to get annoyed with WALL-E. At last, the sensation came back to my chest, and I took in several grateful breaths of sweet oxygen, the air rattling in my half-numb, half-feeling lungs.

I shook the prickling feeling from my legs, and finally managed to stand. "L-Let's g-go, WALL-E," I said. My mouth still had not fully recovered from the crippling electrocution, which meant an involuntary stutter in my words. I took a step, and stumbled on my stiff legs. I quickly regained my balance, and walked as fast as I could without my recovering legs giving out beneath me, which was not very fast. Which was not good, because Auto was still trying to get the antivirus.

I tried to run, my attempt ending in another stumble, and I fell. WALL-E saw the trouble I was having, and came up behind me, lifting me up into his arms and startling me with his strength. He carried me to the garbage chute, let me get in to start climbing down, and followed after me.

We got out of the chute at the place we had entered, and stood there a minute before it hit us. WALL-E held the lifesaving antivirus in his hand. We had done it. We successfully retrieved the antivirus from Auto. After another moment of staring at each other, we started rejoicing, cheering and shouting and jumping up and down.

I rapidly sobered, though, when I remembered what we needed this antivirus for. I recalled how that morning before I left, EVE's condition was deteriorating. She was weakening, losing the battle against the virus that threatened to destroy her system completely. She could hardly move, she was so weak. We needed to get moving, before it was too late for her.

"Move!" I commanded WALL-E. "We have to hurry! EVE won't last much longer!"

"EVE-ah!" exclaimed WALL-E. He then zoomed off at full speed, nearly leaving me behind in the dust.

"Wait! Not that fast! WALL-E!" I couldn't keep up with him; my legs still wouldn't work like they were supposed to.

WALL-E heard me, skidded into a U-turn, and came back to sweep me up in his arms again before turning back around to leave the_ Axiom _once and for all. I let him carry me out, resigned but silently fuming. I despised being the damsel in distress, but what could I do about it?

He rushed to the workshop, and arrived there in a matter of minutes. I wriggled out of his arms, and got back onto my own two feet. My legs were at last back to normal, so I ran into the workshop.

EVE was in an even worse state now. She couldn't even move now, paralyzed by her own weakness, by the virus wrecking her system. Her eyes looked at me, then to WALL-E, but she said nothing. It seemed that she was too weak to even speak now. But her eyes betrayed her worry, and fear that was undeniably there.

"It's okay, EVE," I said to her. "You'll be okay." I turned to WALL-E. "Hand me that antivirus, please." He put the floppy disk in my hand, and I showed it to EVE as proof. "See this? This will make you all better."

EVE responded with a weak glare. That look told me right away what she was thinking: _You lied to me_. She knew something was wrong with her, and I told her that there was nothing to worry about.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry for lying to you like that. I really am. I just . . . I just didn't want you to worry." Which was pretty dumb on my part. I should have known she knew better than that. "Please forgive me."

The angry look in her eyes faded, replaced with a questioning one. She wanted to know what exactly was wrong with her. A warning gleam in her eyes told me not to tell another lie.

"You have a virus, one implanted by Auto. This floppy disk holds the antivirus that will eliminate it."

That seemed to satisfy her. Her eyes now said, _Well, then, go ahead. I'm not stopping you._ I inserted the floppy disk into my computer, and initiated the download. I brought up the new program's progress. _1%_. But if it did cure EVE, it was worth the wait.

_2%_.

I stared intently at the computer as if my eyes would somehow speed up the process. But my tense concentration on the computer was broken by a sudden shout of, "EVE-ah!"

_5%_.

I whirled around in my chair. WALL-E was holding tightly to EVE's hand; EVE's eyes were losing focus. _No_. I couldn't have been losing her now! I turned back the the compter.

_7%_.

I checked the electrical pulse monitor. The rhythm was slow, but steady and even. But the strength of each pulse was alarmingly low, barely registering as even a blip. I slammed a frustrated fist into the side of the computer, like that would help anything. It was too soon. No, I was too late. But I thought she had more time . . .

_11%_.

EVE's eyes were now flickering as she struggled to keep herself alive. But that was a battle she would inevitably lose if this antivirus didn't kick in soon. Why couldn't that darned computer go any faster?

_49%_.

_Huh?_ That was some jump. Maybe, just maybe this thing could work in time, if EVE would just hang in there a little while longer . . . I looked over at her again. Her eyes were dimmed considerably, hardly visible. A conscious action by her to conserve power, or was she really that bad off? It was impossible to tell at that point. Back to the computer.

_57%_.

It was getting there. But that wasn't good enough. EVE wasn't going to last long enough for the program to work. Her vitals were fading, and quickly. EVE was . . . dying. She was dying, and the thing that could have saved her life couldn't load fast enough to do its job.

_72%_.

EVE's vitals were now barely perceptible. She was only going to live a few minutes longer. I tried to encourage her to fight for life, saying to her, "Come on, EVE. Hang in there, you can do it." Her vitals picked up the by the smallest increment, but it was something.

_89%_.

The program was so close to completion, and EVE was so close to death. Which was going to come first?

_93%_.

So close . . . yet so far. EVE's vitals cut off abruptly, flatlining. It was over. She was gone. I heard a _thunk_ as her levitation system gave out, and she fell onto the table. It saddened me more than I felt it should have, seeing her pulled down by gravity when she had always been above it.

WALL-E couldn't seem to comprehend what had just happened to EVE. "EVE-ah?" he said. "EVE-ah. EVE-ah. EVE-ah! EVE-AH!" He called her name incessantly. And at once, I recalled a passage from the story of WALL-E's past, a version that went into more detail than my storybook. Watching WALL-E, that one particular part came into my mind. I remember how it said:

_WALL-E presented the small plant to EVE, unknowing of its true nature. EVE scanned it, and confirmed its biological nature. In the very same moment, her programming took over. With no awareness of her actions, she took the plant into her chest cavity, built for just such a purpose, and went into stasis mode, a green flashing symbol of a plant glowing with an eerie pulsing rhythm on the left side of her chest. WALL-E knew not what was happeneing, and worried for EVE. He shook her as if he could wake her so simply, and cried her name several times. Tried as he might, he could not wake EVE._

If I recalled it correctly, then WALL-E must have thought EVE was simply asleep. "WALL-E," I said, hoping to tear his attention away from EVE.

"EVE-ah . . . EVE-AH!" he cried once again. He shouted her name with such anguish, such emotion, that I could no longer deny it. Robots _did_ have emotions, despite all my skeptical beliefs. WALL-E finally opened my eyes to that truth. And though it pained me to do so, I had to tell him that EVE was gone for good, or he would likely stay by her side for all eternity.

But my words were falling on deaf ears, as evidenced by his ignoring me. So I just grabbed him and attempted to pull him away from EVE. However, he really didn't want to leave EVE. He gripped the edge of the table and held on with all his strength, which was more strength than I had. I pulled and pulled, but he just wouldn't let go. It would have been comical, if it wasn't so sad.

"WALL-E!" I snapped at him. I wasn't so much annoyed at him, but more at my own stupidity. If I hadn't spent my time goffing off, I might have been able to get to EVE in time. His eyes finally turned away from EVE, and to me. "EVE's gone, okay?"

"EVE-ah not gone," he replied. "EVE-ah here."

He misunderstood. I needed to be a little more specific. "Listen, WALL-E . . . EVE is gone. Not literally, but she's, uh, in a better place now."

That he understood, if only somewhat. "EVE-ah come back?"

What I wouldn't have given to be as innocent and naive as WALL-E. "No. She's gone for good."

"WALL-E wait for EVE-ah." And another misunderstanding.

"No!" My voice rose with a sharp edge of irritance. Again, it was more at myself than at him, bt I couldn't keep its cutting blade out of my next words. "She's gone! Gone forever!"

I saw WALL-E flinch, and only then did I realize the impact of my words.

To a robot, _forever_ is a really, really long time.

WALL-E turned slowly back to EVE, taking in what I'd just said. He stared at her for the longest time, letting the news sink in. "EVE-ah . . ." he said one last time, his voice a soft whimper. Then I heard a sound from him I'd never heard from any other robot before, a strangled, hiccuping sound that sounded like a sob, like he was crying or something.

"WALL-E?" I gently coaxed him into turning back around to face me. There was something in his eyes, it seemed. I swiped a finger across one of his eyes, and it came away wet, glistening with oil. I looked back at him; his eyes were, indeed, filled with oil. My goodness, he _was_ crying. "Oh, WALL-E . . ." I wrapped my arms around him, and drew him close. It felt awkward, his clunky body against mine, but it also felt right somehow.

I held him in my embrace for a long while, while he kept crying and mourning EVE. The EVE sisters grieved, as well, crying for their lost sister. I was close to tears, too, and was about to break down and cry with the rest of them when I heard a chime from my computer. I released WALL-E, and went over to the computer to investigate.

_100%. Virus successfully deleted_, the computer told me. "You blasted computer! It's too late!" I shouted at it, striking it with my fist again. Then I saw EVE's vitals. It was almost impossible to see, but it was there. A pulse. My voice quieted with wonder and my eyes filling with tears of relief and joy, I whispered, "It's a miracle . . ." As I watched, it grew stronger and stronger. Not only was EVE alive, but the virus was gone.

EVE stirred, and showed those gorgeous blue eyes once more. She brought herself upright, and looked around. It was like she was merely waking up after a nice nap—to her, anyways. WALL-E looked up, and made a sound like a gasp.

"EVE-ah? EVE-ah!" he exclaimed, running to her. He was crying again, this time in joy, and hugging her tightly and saying her name over and over again with the same joy.

"WALL-E, what's wrong?" EVE asked when she saw his tears.

He could only say her name again and cry some more.

EVE turned to me. "Did I miss something?"

"No," I said, wiping away my own tears. "You just gave us one heck of a scare there. But you're okay now. The virus is gone."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Her eyes lit up with happiness. "That's great!" She then laughed that wonderful laugh of hers.

I smiled, catching her infectious joy. "It is. It's great . . ."

o~*~o

Life went back to normal after that. I tried teaching WALL-E and EVE how to fish—which, honestly, wasn't one of my greatest ideas. WALL-E didn't even want to use a fishing pole, that crazy little bot. No, he wanted to use his hands. That didn't turn out so well for him. He'd gotten one or two fish out of the water, but then they'd slipped right out of his hands, much to his disappointment. And EVE got impatient with the whole thing, and blasted the lake with her plasma blaster, soaking us all with the resulting shower of water. But other than that, not much happened.

Until one day . . .

One day, WALL-E went for a walk by himself, and I decided to tag along. The entire way, I had a sense of déjà vu, as if I'd been here before. But I dismissed it as simple paranoia and kept walking. Though the feeling kept creeping up in the back of my mind, the thought refusing to die.

I could see a small mound of dirt up ahead. This stood out like a sore thumb to me, though I had no idea why . . . I suddenly realized with a start that I _did _know this place, this trail.

It was where EVE planted those land mines, the night her eyes glowed crimson.

And WALL-E was headed right for one of those mines. I tried to stop him, but I was too far away, and he was too close to the mine. I shouted and called after him to no avail. My own voice sounded almost alien to me as I yelled at the top of my lungs:

"NO! _WALL-E_!"

_KA-BOOM!_

**Post A/N: **Yes, it's another cliffhanger! I'm sorry, I don't really like to leave you hanging like this, but I got to keep you guys interested somehow! Please don't forget to review! Oh, and just so you know, I'd like to hear just a little more than "Please continue!" or "Write another chapter!" or something like that. Thank you in advance, and see you next chapter!


	4. Listen to Your Heart

_**Chapter 4: Listen to Your Heart**_

"WALL-E! Aah!" I cried out as the forceful shockwave of the explosion knocked me off my feet and threw me backwards, away from WALL-E and the blast. I couldn't tell what became of WALL-E, for the percussive blow pushed the air from my lungs and, for several helpless moments, left me unable to see, hear, or even move. After the smoke and dust settled, I managed to sit up, though my vision still swam with dark spots and there was a persistent ringing in my ears.

I forced myself to recover from the shock that had disabled me so, saying to myself, "Shake it off, Nikki. You're fine, you're perfectly fine. Ugh . . ." An involuntary groan slipped past my lips as I moved and my muscles complained in response. Having been in such close proximity of the explosion, my entire body was sore, bruised from the powerful shockwave that had struck me. At least I hadn't been any closer than I was, or I probably would have gotten more than some aches and bruises. I struggled to my feet, only to be sent back to the ground by a shock of pain that shot up my right leg and caused it to give out. I looked at my right foot, where the pain was the worst, and saw that it was pointed at a slightly off angle. When the blast had thrown me, I had landed on it, and twisted it.

But my injuries weren't important then. I had to see how WALL-E fared, see if he had survived. I got back up again, this time shifting my weight to my good leg so as to avoid the pain of my twisted ankle, and turned around to face where WALL-E encountered the land mine. And what I saw was not good.

There was nothing left of WALL-E. All that remained were parts; mangled, twisted pieces of metal that I could barely even recognize as parts of WALL-E. Here was a shattered eyepiece, there were the shredded remains of his treads. Other than that, there was nothing left of him.

And if there was nothing left of him, there was no way that I could fix him.

I stood there a few minutes, trying to accept that information, when I heard someone approach from behind. I turned around to see who it was. It was EVE. "Hey, EVE," I said to her, trying but failing to hide the sorrow in my voice.

"I heard an explosion," EVE said, her azure eyes showing worry. "Is everything okay?"

"Well . . ." I hesitated, reluctant to tell EVE what had happened to WALL-E. For now, I was blocking her view of the disaster site, but I knew she'd find out sooner or later. I deliberated on whether or not to tell her. Caught up in this mental debate, I absentmindedly moved my weight from my good foot to my injured one, and I couldn't keep myself from wincing at the pain that resulted.

EVE's eyes widened with more worry and concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. It's just a slight sprain, that's all."

She did a quick search for WALL-E, knowing that he had been with me. "Where's WALL-E? Is he okay?"

"Um . . ." I paused again, not sure how to break the news to her. "A-About that . . ."

"What's wrong? Where is WALL-E? Tell me!" she demanded. She looked almost ready to use her blaster on me, she glared at me with such venom in her eyes. She was willing to do anything for WALL-E, even attack a friend; I could see that in her threatening yet still lovely eyes.

I didn't want to get blasted into oblivion, but I still couldn't quite bring myself to tell her, so instead I said, "Just look behind me." I stepped aside so she could see for herself what happened to WALL-E.

EVE stared at what used to be WALL-E, and tilted her head in confusion. "What . . . What am I looking at?" she asked, hints of dread slipping into her voice.

I drew in a deep breath, suppressed a groan as the air pressed against my bruised ribs, and let it out in a long sigh. "You—You're looking at . . . You're looking at all that's left of WALL-E."

"W-What? No!" EVE said disbelievingly. She looked at me, then at the remains of WALL-E, and back at me again, her eyes two perfect circles of shock.

"I'm so sorry, EVE. I couldn't stop him . . ."

"No . . . WALL-E . . ." She hovered closer, looking more closely at what was left of WALL-E. I watched as she picked up one of the parts, and as she dropped it with a shriek of alarm when she realized what it was: one of his eyepieces. Once one half of his innocent, soulful gaze, now just another broken part. EVE recovered from her shock, and picked the eyepiece back up, cradling it gently in her shaking hands. After another moment, she just couldn't take it anymore. She threw the part away, and flew as fast as she could to get away.

"Wait! EVE!" I called to her. I tried to run after her, and ended up on the ground again thanks to my twisted ankle. That's when I felt the first drops of rain on my skin. I got back on my feet and limped after her instead. The light shower of rain turned into a downpour as I walked, as if to add to my misery. My skin and hair were soaked, but right then I didn't care. The only thing I could think of was EVE and how heartbroken she must have been, more so than I or anybody else. I couldn't even begin to imagine what it must have felt like, losing the one loved most.

Soon, though, one of my other robot friends came to my aid—B-RLA, an umbrella 'bot. She shielded me from the cold rain, which I was grateful for. That is, until the spokes of her umbrella blew out, shooting upwards and letting the rain come down on me again. "I thought I fixed that," I remarked drily.

I kept on walking—step, limp, step, limp—and eventually found EVE after what felt like an hour. She was taking shelter under the branches of the Tree of Beginnings, nursing the small flame of an old lighter. "WALL-E . . ." she sighed, staring mournfully at the soft, delicate, flickering flame. A few stray drops of rain dripped off her, some sliding down her visor and across her eyes as if they were teardrops, as if she was crying. She looked just as heartbroken as I'd thought she was, and that broke my own heart. I knew then that I couldn't face her, not at that moment, not when both our hearts were broken and aching.

Ignoring the pain every other step caused, I ran away, to where I didn't know; I just had to get away. I kept running, running . . .

. . . until I ran into something. A person. A guy, from the feel of his flat, hard chest. On first impulse, I pulled away, and saw that it was Colin.

"Nikki!" he exclaimed. I noticed that he held a black umbrella, which I found morbidly appropriate for the depressing situation. Thankfully, this umbrella didn't break like B-RLA's did, and blocked the rain as it was supposed to. Colin wrapped his strong arm around my waist and pulled me close to him so that my head rested on his equally strong and broad shoulder. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!" Wait, he was concerned about me?

I would have pulled away again, but I relaxed into him when the warm heat of his body dispelled the chill that had settled within mine. "C-Colin, I d-don't . . . I-I can't . . ." I stuttered through chattering teeth, at a loss for words.

I felt his grip around me tighten. "You're soaking wet. What happened?" he asked.

His evident concern for me unraveled me. All the emotion and heartache I had been keeping a tight hold on escaped my grasp and poured out at once. I broke down in his embrace, sobbing into his shoulder as he held me tight. In response to my emotional outburst, Colin held me even tighter yet somehow gentler at the same time. I felt protected there in his arms, like he could fend off anything that would dare to ruin this perfect moment.

When I had no more tears to cry, Colin released me, though I honestly have to admit that I would have liked for him to have held me just a little longer. I turned and started to head towards Colin's house. "I'll tell you what happened when we get to your house," I said over my shoulder. But of course Colin noticed the obvious limp in my stride.

"You're hurt," he said, concern ringing in his voice. "Let me help you." It was only then that I realized that he really _did _sound like a captain. His voice was filled with such authority, it was a wonder that I hadn't noticed it earlier. His words only registered when he gathered me into his arms like I was some damsel in distress.

"H-Hey! Put me down! I demand that you put me down!" I protested, wriggling out of his arms. Once I got back onto my own two feet, I said, with a little more attitude than I'd intended, "I can walk on my own, thank you very much." Though I said that and had meant it, my feet begged to differ. They somehow tripped over one another, almost as if in protest of my self-assured words, and I pitched forward with no hope of regaining balance. But before I could fall, Colin caught me. And although he was right, he didn't smirk at me or say, "I told you so," or anything like that. He just smiled at me like he always did.

"Well, if I can't carry you," he said, "can I at least support you? Like so?" His arm slid around my waist, and I could feel his strength holding up part of my weight so that I didn't have to. "Is this okay with you?"

"Yeah, I suppose it's fine," I muttered, hardly able to say otherwise when it felt so good to have that weight off my injured ankle. So I let him help me back to his house without so much as a word of protest.

Once there, Colin gently pried the boot off my right foot, taking care not to jostle my hurt ankle, and wrapped my injury tight with some bandages. When he finished tying the bandages, he asked, "Does that feel better now?"

"A little," I said, an understatement. With the bandages giving support to it, my ankle felt a lot better, almost pain-free. "Thank you, Colin."

"It was the least I could do. But now you have to answer my question: Why were you out there in the rain in the first place? I mean, what happened?"

"A land mine blew, and I was too close," I said, explaining my injury to him. "And . . . And WALL-E . . ."

"What about WALL-E?"

"He, uh . . . He was the one who set off the land mine. And he didn't survive."

Colin's look of concern turned to one of shock, then sadness. "Oh . . . Well, can't you fix him? Isn't that what you do—fix robots?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I just can't." I wished he would leave the subject alone. He didn't.

"Why can't you fix him, Nikki? You fix robots all the time!" He was starting to get angry. So was I. Both our voices rose higher and higher as the tension between us mounted.

"I told you, I can't, I just can't! WALL-E is beyond repair!"

"How can you say that? I thought you were a mechanic! It's your job to fix robots! How can you tell me that he's beyond repair?"

It was too much for me. Something inside me snapped, and I yelled at the top of my lungs, "He was blown to smithereens! There is nothing left of him! He's in a million different pieces that I will never be able to put back together!" My anger left with the air in my lungs as I breathed out, and I gradually calmed down. All that was left was the heartache and grief. "Okay? He is irreparable. No matter how hard I try, I won't be able to fix him. You're just going to have to accept that."

Colin understood, the way he always understood me. "Okay," he said calmly. "I'm sorry, Nikki. I really am. I had no idea."

"No, _I'm _sorry. I—I wish I could fix him. I honestly do. But . . . it's just not possible. I can't do it.

" . . . Do you really believe that?"

"Huh?"

"Tell me . . . What does your heart say?"

"What are you talking about?"

Colin pointed to my head, and said, "Your mind says you can't. But your heart . . ." He then pointed at my chest, at my heart. "What does your heart say?"

"I . . . I don't know. What do you even mean by that?"

"Let me put it this way: You _think_ you can't—but do you _believe_ that? Or do you feel that is your heart saying something different?"

"I don't . . . How can I know what my heart is saying?"

"Just listen to it."

"What? But how do I . . . ?"

"Listen to your heart, Nikki; more often than not, it knows what's right."

"Um . . . Okay. Thank you, Colin. For everything. But I should get going; I have something I have to do." I got up from the couch and walked out of the house.

I headed for the Tree of Beginnings, pondering Colin's words as I walked. I still couldn't comprehend the concept of my heart talking, or whatever he was trying to get at.

I got to the tree, and as I'd suspected, EVE was still there, still holding that lighter and staring at it as if it was the only thing in the world. "EVE . . ." I started, then closed my mouth when I couldn't find any more words.

"What do you want?" EVE said, turning her gaze to me.

My thoughts turned to the lighter in her hands. I asked her, "What does this lighter mean to you?" I had been wondering why she held on to that particular object. I knew it had to have meant something to her, but I was feeling a little nosy and wanted to know exactly what. Also, I still didn't know what else to say to her.

"Lighter? So that is what it is called . . . You know that place WALL-E and I brought you to?"

"Yeah, the truck. What about it?"

"When I met WALL-E, he brought me there. He showed many interesting items. A box that displayed moving images. Some strange material that made a delightful popping sound when I pressed it. An object that lit up in my hands. And this lighter. It's part of my first memory of him. It . . . It's the only thing I have left of him now." She flicked open the lighter, and again watched the gentle flame burning. "I miss him so much . . ."

"Oh, EVE. I can't imagine how hard it must be for you."

"I just can't believe that I've lost him all over again," EVE said then, invoking my curiosity.

"Again?"

A look of pain flashed across her eyes, and I regretted asking. But she spoke, anyway, regardless of how painful the subject must have been for her. "Once, on our journey together, a hundred years ago, WALL-E nearly died. I was able to save him, but just barely." The flame of the lighter danced and flickered as her hands began to shake. "I . . . I never dreamed that . . . that I'd lose him again." Now she couldn't even keep her hold on the lighter, her hands trembled so. The lighter fell to the ground; its flame was extinguished. "It isn't fair! Why should I have to go through this twice? I-I can't take it! Why? Why!"

I wrapped my arms around her in a comforting embrace. And though her eyes, those LED lights with the sole purpose of expressing her emotions, could never produce tears, she still cried, her body shaking with tearless sobs.

It was then that I looked up and saw that the rain had stopped. The beams of light from the sun, broken here and there by scattered clouds, shone brightly like rays of hope. My mind hushed, my thoughts slowed to a stop as I watched the rays of hope shining in spite of the dark clouds around them. Only then could I hear it. A small voice from within me, saying, "_You **can **do it._"

Was that my heart? Did my heart think that I could fix WALL-E? The answer to both was "yes." _Listen to your heart, Nikki_, Colin had said. _More often than not, it knows what's right._

My heart was telling me that I could fix WALL-E, so that had to have meant that I could, if what Colin said was right. I still wasn't entirely sure, but it was at least worth a shot. I had to try.

My thoughts turned back to EVE. She deserved to have a little bit of hope, even if it turned out that I couldn't help WALL-E. "EVE . . ." I said. When she looked up at me, I continued, "I think I might be able to help him, after all."

She couldn't believe my words; her eyes widened with shock and disbelief. She didn't dare to hope for fear of getting that hope crushed. "R-Really?" she asked warily.

"Maybe. I'm not sure, but I'm going to try."

This time she let herself hope—I could see it brightening her eyes. "Yes. Yes, please try. If you can do anything to help him . . ."

"I'll do my best."

o~*~o

I stood in the middle of the wreckage that was once WALL-E. I needed to see if there were any parts I could possibly salvage. But I had rummaged through all of it, and there was nothing. Everything was too mangled, too broken to ever be used again. I was thinking of leaving and never coming back, when a glint of blue caught my eye. I went over to where I saw it, under a pile of ash and scrap metal. I spotted the blue again, a small corner peeking out. I gently removed it from the pile, and examined it more closely.

I couldn't believe it. It was WALL-E's central motherboard, miraculously intact. That one part was, in essence, WALL-E's heart and soul. It contained all his memories, his unique, charming personality, everything that was WALL-E. With it, I could bring him back to life.

That was the only part I could find that was still whole. But it didn't matter, because that single part was all I really needed. Although, it meant that I was going to have to rebuild his body from scratch. And without a blueprint of his basic structure, that task was going to be difficult.

Luck must have been on my side—or maybe it was fate—because the breeze brought to me a piece of paper. On it was a blueprint for a robot. According to the words on it, it was a blueprint for a robot called the Waste Allocator Load Lifter—Earth class. Or in other words, WALL-E. Another miracle that brought me closer to resurrecting him. It was almost as if the Earth itself wanted me to bring WALL-E back.

I rushed back to my workshop and carefully hid the precious motherboard, so no one would disturb the vitally important part. After I ensured the motherboard's safety, I went out to enlist the help of BURN-E, a welder robot. He used to work welding things on the _Axiom_, but he had the worst of luck, experiencing nothing but misfortune—most of it due to WALL-E. I wasn't sure if he would want to help me rebuild the robot that caused him so much trouble. But to my pleasant surprise, he agreed to help me. As I soon discovered, everyone wanted WALL-E back, and that didn't exclude BURN-E.

The two of us returned to the workshop, and got to work. I laid out WALL-E's blueprint in front of me, and with some spare metal I found around the shop, I pieced together a basic, skeletal frame. BURN-E then welded the pieces of metal together, and we had the skeleton of WALL-E. From this skeleton, I was going to build the rest of him. But before I could get any more work done, the EVE sisters intruded.

"What's that?" inquired one of them.

"This is WALL-E," I replied. "At least, it's going to be."

"Looks more like Franken-Bot to me," another scoffed.

I shot a warning glare to each of them. "Okay, who said that?" I asked indignantly.

All the EVE sisters pointed to one another, diverting the blame to each other. One even pointed her finger at me, which was rather laughable. "Never mind," I sighed. "But that's the last time I'm letting any of you watch those old movies!" This I said because the EVE sister's snide remark was clearly inspired by one of those ancient films of the past.

That got a collective "Aww!" of disappointment from the sisters, along with other various complaints. After a few moments, they sulked out of the workshop, leaving me to work in peace and quiet.

With several days' time and BURN-E's assistance, I finally had something that somewhat resembled WALL-E. After altering and fitting some spare parts I found in WALL-E's truck and adding them to what I had, it was amazing, a nearly perfect replica of him.

EVE, who had been watching me work much like WALL-E had when the roles were reversed, said with wide eyes, "Incredible! It looks just like him!"

"Sure, it looks like him," I said, "but right now, it's nothing but a shell. I need some circuits, computer chips, something if I'm going to change that."

"Can they be any kind of circuits?"

"Yeah, sure. Why? Do you think that maybe you can find some for me?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, what are you still doing here? Go on and fetch them for me!"

EVE saluted me like she would for a Captain. "Right away, ma'am!" She then zoomed off like she always did.

After a while, she returned with several different circuit boards. "That's what I'm talking about!" I exclaimed. I took the boards from her and, again with the help of BURN-E, I patched them carefully together into one. That's when I saw the problem. " . . . I need at least one more circuit board." There was a hole in the circuitry I assembled, one that required another circuit board to fill. I turned to EVE. "Are these all the circuit boards you can find?"

"Yes. I have looked everywhere, and there are no more. Although . . ."

"What is it?"

"There's one you could get, from one certain robot."

"I don't understand. What are you getting at, EVE?"

"You could go back to the _Axiom_ and get one from Auto."

That stopped me in my tracks. "What? No! No, no, NO! I am _not _going back there! Uh-uh, no way, not happening!" I still tensed up when I recalled my _shocking_ experience on the _Axiom_. I was not about to go through that again.

"Please," EVE pleaded. "Do it for WALL-E." She gazed at me with such a longing, desperate look in her eyes, there was just no way that I could say no.

"Well," I said with a heavy sigh, "it looks like I'm going back to the _Axiom _one more time."


	5. Final Curtain

_**Chapter 5: Final Curtain**_

For what I hoped to be the final time, I returned to the _Axiom_. This time, EVE accompanied me; she wasn't going to let me go if I didn't let her come along. We made our way back to the bridge where Auto was, an air of apprehension silently clinging to us as we did.

When we got there, I said to Auto, "Nice to see you again . . . not!"

Auto turned and focused his eye on me. "What are you doing here?" he asked in that monotonous voice.

"We're here to take you down, once and for all!"

Auto narrowed his eye at me, and unveiled his electrical prod. I froze at the sight of the deadly lightning crackling, the memory of my past experience with it locking my muscles in place. I was pathetically helpless as he came at me, as if I were paralyzed all over again.

"Move! Get out of the way!" EVE cried. But I couldn't; my body just wouldn't listen to me. "Move, Nikki! Come on!" It was impossible; my feet were practically glued to the floor. And Auto was getting closer. He was inches away from giving me what likely would have been a fatal shock when EVE came to my rescue, shoving me out of the way.

"You . . . okay?" EVE inquired in English.

"I'm fine," I replied. "It's just that I've had a bad encounter with electricity before, and I don't want to run into it again."

"Auto electrocuted you?" she said, switching back to Robot-Speak.

"How'd you know?"

"I did not; I simply assumed. Also, that's not something I would put past him."

Our conversation was interrupted when Auto lunged at us again with his electric prod. We dodged his attack with a simultaneous side-step in opposite directions. EVE readied her ion cannon, and aimed it at Auto.

"No, wait!" I shouted. "Wait, EVE!"

"What is it?" asked EVE, with an annoyed glance at me.

"I'm trying to get his circuit board, right? Well, it won't be of any use to me if it's blasted to bits!"

"Oh. Right." She started to disarm her blaster, when Auto intervened. He reached out with his extendable gripper, grabbed onto the tip of EVE's blaster and, with an alarming amount of strength, crushed it.

EVE cried out in pain, and I rushed to her aid, grabbing a large, heavy wrench from my toolbox and whacking Auto's gripper to make him release her. He let go and backed away, which I saw as my chance. I came at him wielding my trusty wrench, intending to land a nice, heavy blow on him, only to be knocked away by him. I tried again to attack him, and again he pushed me away. This time, his electric prod ever so lightly brushed my arm, and I stiffened with fear as the electricity prickled against my skin.

After that, EVE tried once more to fight with me, picking up a different wrench from my toolbox and going at Auto with it. For her heroic efforts, though, she received nothing, except more pain. Auto gripped her other arm, crushing it with his strength like he did her blaster arm, and threw her into the wall, taking down several of the Captain holo-pictures in the process.

I went at Auto one more time, determined to land at least one good hit. My attack was a success; I managed to shatter his lens, effectively blinding him. But he wasn't ready to give up. He whirled around and flung me off him, sending me flying, all in a blind thrash. I crashed through the window and nearly fell to my death; I was saved by a stroke of luck. I landed on the edge of the window, my feet dangling out and my arms still inside. The resulting shards of glass cut into me, and I gritted my teeth against the pain.

I climbed back inside, accidentally scraping myself against some more broken glass as I did, and glared at Auto with all the anger I could muster. "How do I defeat you?" I growled to myself. Auto swiveled slowly around, trying futilely to detect my presence somehow, and I fell silent.

I heard a moan, and turned around to see EVE removing herself from the dent her body made in the wall. She moaned again, a sound of pain, and Auto honed in on the sound, rushing towards it with his electric prod at the ready. I quickly moved in front of EVE, and held his attack with my wrench.

"How dare you attack a defenseless robot!" I snarled at him. Perhaps it was a burst of adrenaline, or maybe I'm stronger than I thought, but I somehow deflected the prod away. He attacked with the prod again, and this time I could only hold it back. Auto shifted the prod, and I caught sight of something on him. It was a switch, with two options that read, "MANUAL" and, "AUTOMATIC." My chance to finish him off! But that chance vanished when Auto shifted the prod once more so that the tip touched my wrench. My _metal_ wrench. The electric current travelled down it and into my arm, numbing it completely. I broke contact immediately after to avoid letting it go any further, but the damage was already done. My right arm was paralyzed.

"That was a lucky shot." I transferred my wrench to my left hand, clutching it tightly. _Curse that wretched robot for taking out my good arm_, I thought. My right arm was strongest, and now I had to use my weaker left arm. "But I think your luck's run out!"

"I will not allow you to defeat me," said Auto with the slightest hint of determination and anger in his emotionless voice.

In response, I tightened my grip on my wrench, and . . . Wait. What was I going to do with this wrench? If I was going to get to that switch I saw, I needed my hand free since my other one was disabled. "Ah, screw this stupid wrench!" I said, tossing the wrench away. With a running start, I jumped as high as I could and latched onto Auto. I struggled to stay on him; the simple task of hanging on was made harder by the fact that I could use only one hand.

"Let go," Auto said, now sounding just a little bit annoyed. He spun around and around in place in an attempt to either throw me off or make me dizzy.

"Never!" I shouted. "Gah!" My hold on him was loosening; I would inevitably fall soon. And I couldn't reach for the switch because it was taking all I had just to hang on, with Auto spinning like a mad bot. Then Auto began to spin even faster, and I knew I had to make my move soon or lose this opportunity. My legs coiled around him tighter, holding him in a death grip as I took the chance and reached for the switch.

My hand moved quicker than I thought possible, and my fingers brushed the switch. _Now, push it!_ I commanded my hand. It did. My hand flicked the switch. And with that one simple motion, it was all over. Auto was done for. He was deactivated, never to harm another human or robot.

I let myself fall off him, weak with exhilaration and relief. After taking a few minutes to catch my breath, I got up off the floor and got to work. First off, I disconnected Auto from the ceiling, severing his connection to the ship so that no one could ever accidentally reactivate him like I did. I then laid him down on the floor and pried open the circuit panels. There were Auto's circuits, rusted and old but still gloriously advanced and complex. I gently lifted up the circuit board, carefully pulling it out with slow precision; I did not want to damage this last, precious part I absolutely needed.

And finally, finally I had what I needed to bring WALL-E back in my hands. I found myself staring at it in silent reverence for a moment or two before I snapped out of it. I got what I needed, and had no reason to stick around. It was time to leave this place behind for good.

"Come on, EVE," I said. "Let's go." With that, the two of us left the _Axiom_, not once looking back.

o~*~o

EVE kept our prize safe in the hollow compartment in her chest as we hurried back to my workshop. I had BURN-E weld the last circuit board—Auto's circuit board—in place, and I placed the completed circuitry in WALL-E. I then installed the blue central motherboard, lacing together the intricate wires. Now all I needed to do was write some additional programs, implement a few programming patches here and there, and he'd be good as new. But my main concern at the moment was EVE. She had taken quite the beating from Auto, and I needed to help her first.

"Here, let me see your arm," I said to her.

EVE did so, showing her arm to me. It was mangled, crushed by Auto's incredible strength. But it wasn't anything I couldn't fix. I beckoned BURN-E to come so that he could help me with this repair job. EVE whimpered with worry when I approached her with a mallet in my hand, but I assured her, "Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to pound that arm of yours into shape, okay?"

" . . . Okay," she said, holding her arm out again.

"Great. BURN-E! Do your thing!"

"Right away, ma'am!" he responded with a salute.

"Now remember, for this kind of job, maintain a relatively low temperature," I reminded him as I slipped on a pair of thick heat-proof gloves. "You want to heat the metal, not melt it."

"Of course, ma'am."

"Don't be so formal, alright? Call me Nikki. Everyone else does."

"Yes, ma'am!" I couldn't help but smile at that.

"Well, never mind about that. Let's get to work, shall we?"

"W-We shall, ma'am!" BURN-E activated his welding tool, the small flame fluctuating as he adjusted its temperature. He then put the flame to EVE's arm, heating the metal so that I could work it. When the metal turned red-hot, BURN-E backed away and I got to work. Holding her arm with my heat-proof-glove-clad hand, I pounded her arm with the mallet in my other hand. With each _clang_ of metal on metal, EVE's arm gradually regained its former shape. After I finished re-shaping it, I poured some water over her arm to cool it, the hiss of steam filling the air as the heat was extinguished.

"How's that, EVE?" I asked her.

EVE examined her newly repaired arm. To me, it seemed good as new—but then again, it wasn't my arm. "It's perfect," she said, her eyes forming the crescent shapes I knew as her smile. "Thank you so much."

"It was nothing. This is my job, after all. Now, about your other arm . . . It was the tip of your blaster he got, right?"

"Correct. Can you fix that, as well?"

"But of course! Get your blaster out, if you will." EVE got out her blaster, taking care not to charge the deadly weapon. I called BURN-E over again. "Be very careful," I warned him. "That blaster holds pure, potent ionic energy. One wrong move, and it might blow. We don't want that to happen, okay?"

"Um . . . O-Okay," he stammered.

"Don't worry. I know you can do it."

BURN-E seemed less apprehensive and ready to work once he heard my words of assurance. He started his welding tool again and adjusted the flame like he did before. Then he gingerly put the flame to the tip of EVE's blaster, carefully skirting its edge, heating only the section that needed repair. When the metal reached a sufficient temperature, I took a chisel and gently wedged it into the tip of the blaster. I then pounded the chisel with the mallet, forcing it farther in. I kept doing this until the blaster tip, which had been crushed closed by Auto, was open again. Then for aesthetic purposes, I lightly tapped the tip's edges to get rid of the last few dents that remained.

"There," I said. "Good as new."

"Thank you so much, Nikki," said EVE gratefully. "I can't tell you how helpless I have felt without my blaster."

"Like I said, it was nothing. I'm glad I was able to help."

"But I really am grateful, and . . . Who's that?"

"Hm?" I turned around, and there was VAQ-M, a vacuum robot. "VAQ-M! What are you doing here, you silly robot?"

"Doin' a bit of cleanin', that's what," he replied. VAQ-M always spoke kind of nasally, as if he had a head cold.

"You're going to help me clean up this messy old workshop? How sweet of you!"

"Just tryin' to help out a li'l." He started vacuuming the workshop and organizing what he couldn't vacuum. In a matter of minutes, he had the entire workshop neat and tidy.

"Wow, everything's so neat and clean! Thank you, VAQ-M!"

"Aw, it was no pro . . . ah . . . ah . . ."

"He's going to blow!" EVE cried, taking cover behind a shelf.

"What are you talking a—" I started to say, but stopped when I heard:

"AH-CHOO!" VAQ-M gave an enormous sneeze, ejecting a cloud of dust that covered the whole workshop.

"Bless you," I said dazedly, stunned and coated in dust.

"Thanks."

I recovered and realized that the workshop was covered in dust as I was. "Whoa, there's dust everywhere!"

"Sorry. My bad."

"That's alright. We can always clean it all up again, right?"

"Ohnoyoudont!" shouted M-O's familiar, speedy voice. He came barging into the workshop—and I swear, if he had a jaw, it would have been on the floor. "OhmygoshthisplaceisFILTHY!" Then he saw the cause of the mess, and went into a rant. "Youidiot!" he yelled. "Youresupposedtocleanthings! Notmakethemdirtier!"

"M-O, calm down," I said soothingly. "He didn't mean to make a mess. It was an accident. So, do you think that maybe you could help us clean this up?"

"AlrightIlldoit," M-O said after some consideration. He got to work right away, scrubbing away the dirt and dust. He worked so efficiently, VAQ-M and I didn't even have to do anything at all. In even less time than VAQ-M, he scrubbed the workshop clean, absolutely spotless. Sometimes, his obsessive-compulsiveness was a good thing.

After that, I shooed the two cleaning robots out so that I could focus on the one thing I still needed to do: finish fixing WALL-E. I connected WALL-E to the computer and accessed his programs. For the moment, there was only residual code from the mixed circuit boards that was fairly useless to me. I erased a majority of the useless code, keeping only the most necessary parts that I could still use. I wrote some basic programs that I thought would match WALL-E's former programming, and put in some programming patches to repair the holes resulting from all the different circuit boards put together. After a few more adjustments, I deemed it ready to try out.

I gently unfolded WALL-E's solar panels, and moved him outside so that the solar panels could hopefully catch the sun's rays and give WALL-E energy, and in turn give him life. EVE and I watched him anxiously, staring keenly at his energy meter and hoping desperately that something would register on it.

We waited . . . and waited. For what felt like an hour—but was actually only about five minutes—we waited with bated breath. Then we heard a sound that was music to our ears: a low whirring, the sound of life within WALL-E. One bar after another appeared on WALL-E's energy meter until it signaled a full charge with an electronic chime that for some reason reminded me of the sound my computer made when I started it up.

WALL-E's eyes opened, and it was like he'd opened them for the very first time. In a way, he was opening his eyes for the first time, the first time since I gave him a new body. He seemed kind of lethargic and listless, though; he wasn't really responding to anything, and his eyes were still half closed.

"Come on, WALL-E," I encouraged him. "Up and at 'em. Come on, wake up!" WALL-E reacted, but only barely, with a tired, halfhearted glance in my direction. "That's it. Come on, sweetie. Wake up. Please wake up, WALL-E." He gave me another dazed look. It was weird. It was like he was only half there, and the other half of him had gone who knows where.

EVE decided to try and wake him. "WALL-E?" she said. No response. "WALL-E? WALL-E! WALL-E, please wake up! Please . . . Please!" She was begging him. If she had knees, she would have been on them, pleading for him to wake up. She reached out with her hand, and held WALL-E's tightly. "Why won't you wake up . . . ?" she asked, gazing into his sleepy eyes.

"EVE . . . I may have done something wrong," I said, voicing my thoughts to her. She turned her azure eyes to me. "I get the feeling something's not quite right. If you'll let me, I would like to run a few tests on him."

"Okay. Just . . . Please, help him. I want my WALL-E back."

"Yeah. I'll do my best." _But I can't promise anything . . ._ I didn't even know if it was a technical problem, or if it just wasn't possible to bring him back. There was the possibility that he really was gone for good, and all my work was in vain. But first, I had to eliminate any chance of a technical error. I tried getting WALL-E to walk with me back into the workshop, but that got me nowhere. He may as well have been a lifeless shell, the way he just stood there like a statue. I pulled him into the workshop, and reconnected him to the computer. I ran a brief diagnostic program to see if there was anything wrong tecnologically.

_ERROR_, the program told me. _Memory processing unit disconnected. _So it _was_ a tecnological problem, and one that was simple to fix. I called EVE in, and told her the good news.

"That's great!" she said. "So, how do you fix this sort of problem?"

That, I was a little releuctant to tell her. "You'll, uh, see for yourself," I said, taking out a wrench from my toolbox. "Forgive me, buddy," I said quietly to WALL-E, which earned a questioning glance from EVE. "This is going to hurrt me more than it's going to hurt you." With that, I delivered a quick blow to the back of WALL-E's head with the wrench, much to EVE's dismay.

"Ah!" she yelped. "What do you think youu're doing to him?"

"That's the only way I know how to fix that kind of problem!" The memory processor was located in the back of WALL-E's head, in a difficult-to-reach crevice, and it takes a good deal of force to put it in there. I then saw WALL-E stir, moving and waking up. "And look! I think WALL-E's coming around! That's it, WALL-E. Come on, wake up." His eyes opened completely, and I saw his lenses adjusting themselves as they tried to focus on his surroundings. "There's a good robot," I cooed softly, encouraging him. "Hi, there. Welcome back. Welcome back, WA—"

"WALL-E!" EVE cried, moving in between me and WALL-E.

"Eeee . . ." WALL-E said, struggling to speak. "EVE-ah?"

"WALL-E . . . I've missed you so, so much!" She embraced him and held him tightly, much to his surprise.

"Where go?" he asked. "WALL-E here, with EVE-ah."

"Oh, WALL-E . . ."

"EVE-ah . . ." Their heads came together, and I saw a spark between them, a literal spark of electricity. Their version of a kiss? Likely so. I was starting to feel like a third wheel here. Then another of my robot friends came in and broke the mood. It was PR-T, a beautician robot.

"Oh, my! Darling, you are a _mess_!" PR-T said, looking at me.

"Who, me?" I said. I had no idea what she was talking about. Then I took a good look at myself. I was covered in dust and dirt, my jumpsuit was torn to shreds, and I'm sure my hair was more than a little messy. I _was_ a mess.

"Yes, you! Now follow me, and I'll make you look fabulous!"

"Fine." I let her lead my back to my house, where she began what she liked to call "the fabulization process." First, she ripped off my tattered jumpsuit and threw me in the bathtub, scrubbing me from head to toe. Then, after wrapping a towel around my body and putting some curlers in my hair, she poked my face with various brushes, which annoyed me to no end. After that, she removed the towel and slipped something made of an incredibly smooth material over my head, then tightened it around my waist and chest. At last, she was done.

"I am good! You look gorgeous!" she said, using one of her preprogrammed English phrases.

"Is that so?" She always said that, regardless.

"Yes, ma'am," she replied, reverting to Robot-Speak. "Just take a look in the mirror if you don't believe me."

"All right." So I looked in the mirror—and couldn't believe what I saw.

I was wearing an emerald green dress made of fine silk, with a hem that fell just above my knees. It was strapless, with a tapered waist and a loose, flowing skirt. My hair, for once, was tamed, my auburn curls soft and shiny. My skin glowed with cleanliness, and with the makeup PR-T so delicately, expertly applied. My hazel eyes stood out thanks to some eyeshadow, and my lips shimmered with a hint of lip gloss. Like PR-T said, I was gorgeous.

"I . . . Wow. Th-Thank you, PR-T."

"It was nothing, honey."

I walked back to the workshop, or tried my best to—it was fairly difficult in the high heels PR-T insisted that I wear. She said my boots were a "big fashion no-no" and that they "didn't go with _anything_," so she forced me to wear those impossible high heels. One wobbly step after another, I made my way to the workshop, until I finally got there and my feet couldn't take anymore. Soon as I got in, I tore those painful shoes off quickly as possible.

WALL-E and EVE caught sight of me in my new attire. WALL-E squawked in wonder, while EVE stared at me with eyes wide in amazement. I smiled at their reaction. When a devious thought crossed my mind, that smile turned into one that I'm sure was bordering on the evil side. EVE happened to notice this.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked warily.

"I'm thinking that if I have to dress up," I said, "you have to get yourself prettied up a little." And see how she likes being forced into a makeover.

"Um, what?"

"Just hang on a minute." I went to one of the shelves and withdrew five matching rose accessories and five magnets. I then went outside, and called out a couple of my good robot friends. Out came good old BURN-E, along with VN-GO, a painter robot. I had BURN-E weld the magnets to the accessories, and VN-GO slathered the metal roses with paint, a different color for each one. I thanked the two robots, and they both vanished to wherever they went. I let the paint on the accessories dry—which thankfully took only a few minutes—and took them inside with me. I took the one painted red, and placed it on EVE's head.

"Hey! What is this?" she asked. She reached up and attempted to remove the rose. Instead, it got stuck on her hand, and she tried but failed to shake it off. "Aah! I can't get it off! What is the meaning of this?"

"That is a magnet. A _strong_ magnet. That rose is not coming off unless I want it to."

EVE responded with a frustrated groan. "This thing looks ridiculous!"

It was then that WALL-E spoke up, saying, "Dress up, dress up!"

"You want to dress up, WALL-E?" I asked him. He nodded enthusiastically. "Well, that makes one of us." I took a ribbon I had lying around the workshop for no particular reason and tied it into a bowtie around WALL-E's "neck," though it wasn't really a neck, per se—it was a stalk of sorts that supported his binocular eyes. But that didn't matter, because he looked just so adorable in that bowtie. "Aww, you look so cute! You, too, EVE! Let's go outside, shall we?"

We went outside—and were greeted by an entire crowd. All the robots I knew were there outside of my workshop. I later found out that they had already heard the news about WALL-E and wanted to see for theirselves. Even Colin was there, standing out like a sore thumb in the middle of all those robots. All of them cheered when they saw WALL-E, rejoicing his return. Then Colin shooed away all the robots, leaving only me, him, and WALL-E and EVE. WALL-E and EVE seemed grateful for this; they didn't really like crowds. They held each other's hand lovingly, staring deeply into each other's eyes. WALL-E reached for the Play button on his recorder, and played "It Only Took A Moment."

_"And that is all . . . that love's about . . ."_

I was starting to get that awkward third-wheel feeling again when I felt something wrapping around my hand. Colin's hand.

_"And we'll recall . . . when time runs out . . ."_

I looked up to meet his gaze. "You look beautiful, Nikki," he said. My heart fluttered with something I'd never felt before.

_"That it only . . . took a moment. . ."_

I smiled at him, the first time I could ever recall smiling at someone who wasn't a robot. I realized that my other half was by my side all along. Something else I realized:

Everyone can have a happy ending. You just have to believe, and never give up.

_"To be loved . . . a whole life . . . long."_

~END~

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That's all, folks! Please don't forget to review!


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